Ahead of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais, footballers gathered for the Women’s Player Summit at Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao to engage on global topics in women’s football.
The Women’s Player Summit provides an opportunity to get direct feedback from players on issues that affect their industry, as well as sharing best practice and discussing strategic opportunities to work collaboratively towards the future of the women’s game.
Dr Alex Culvin, FIFPRO's Head of Strategy and Research for Women's Football, said: "We bring players from all over the globe to talk about player-centric issues that matter to them. It's an important event because we're able to bring players together, at the end of a long season, for them to share their experiences with each other and communicate different issues that they've encountered in their national team and domestic environment, and really share their ambitions for the game to drive the next strategic period for us at FIFPRO."
What the players said
Lucy Staniforth (Aston Villa)
"The Women's Player Summit has been a chance for us to share our own individual experiences in the countries that we all live in and discuss best practice. We've looked at the professionalisation of the women's game and how it looks for certain people. It's been a chance to learn a little bit more about what FIFPRO provide for players and the work that they're doing to better the women's game."
Sara Gama (Juventus)
"It's a way to get players together to share their experiences and best practices and see if we can do something better in our country. it's about coming here and leaving more enriched."
Alex Greenwood (Manchester City)
"It's the first time I've been to a summit like this – it's been interesting and the players had some healthy discussions. It's an important event because we speak about topics that maybe you're uncomfortable to speak about in different situations and it opens up conversation that don't happen often enough, in my opinion. It's a passionate group of players who have gone through many different circumstances from injury to retirement and finishing their career before they should have."
Joelle Murray (Hibernian)
“It’s been insightful hearing from other players in different countries, experiences both domestically and with their national teams. It’s important to hear what other countries are doing in certain areas within the women's game. Hopefully, between players and union representatives, we can take that back to our respective countries and implement them for the betterment of the game.”
